Handover method and apparatus

ABSTRACT

A handover method is disclosed. The handover method includes receiving, by a first base station, MEC information from a MEC entity, performing, by the first base station, a handover decision based on the MEC information, and transmitting, by the first base station, a handover request to a second base station in response to the handover decision.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims the benefit of and priority to aprovisional U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 62/531,980 filed Jul. 13,2017, entitled “MEC-involved Handover Message Flow Design,” AttorneyDocket No. US71586 (hereinafter referred to as “US71586 application”).The disclosure of the US71586 application is hereby incorporated fullyby reference into the present application.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to wireless communication technology, andparticularly to handover methods and related devices in a wirelesscommunication system.

BACKGROUND

Handover is a key function in a wireless communication system. Itensures the reliability and stability of mobile communication. Forexample, when a user equipment (UE) is leaving the a coverage of theserving base station, a handover procedure may be initiated to switchconnection from the original serving base station to another basestation.

However, in the next generation (e.g., 5G) wireless communicationsystem, a base station may be associated with a Mobile Edge Computing(MEC) entity that offers MEC services to the user, where the MEC entitydiversifies the mobility scenarios. For example, two base stationsinvolved in a handover procedure may be related to the same or differentMEC entities. Therefore, there is a need in the art for an improvedhandover mechanism, such that the service connectivity can be maintainedduring the handover.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure is directed to handover methods and relateddevices.

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a method is provided.The method includes receiving, by a first base station, MEC informationfrom a MEC entity, performing, by the first base station, a handoverdecision based on the MEC information, and transmitting, by the firstbase station, a handover request to a second base station in response tohandover decision.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method isprovided. The method includes receiving, by a second base station, ahandover request including a MEC requirement from a first base station,and transmitting, by the second base station, a handover response to thefirst base station in response to the MEC requirement.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method isprovided. The method includes providing, by a Mobile Edge (ME)controller, MEC information to a first base station, enabling, by the MEcontroller, a migration of user data from a first ME host to a second MEhost in response to a data forwarding indication from the first basestation, and allocating, by the ME controller, a computation resource toa second ME host in response to a MEC resource allocation request from asecond base station.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a base station isprovided. The base station includes one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodiedthereon and at least one processor coupled to the one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media. The at least one processor isconfigured to execute the computer-executable instructions to receiveMEC information from a MEC entity, perform a handover decision inresponse to the MEC information, and transmit a handover request toanother base station in response to the handover decision.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a base station isprovided. The base station includes one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodiedthereon and at least one processor coupled to the one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media. The at least one processor isconfigured to execute the computer-executable instructions to receive ahandover request including a MEC requirement from another base station,and transmit a handover response to the another base station in responseto the MEC requirement.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a MEC entity isprovided. The MEC entity includes a first ME host, a second ME host anda ME controller managing the first ME host and the second ME host. TheME controller is configured to provide MEC information to a first basestation, enable a migration of user data from the first ME host to thesecond ME host in response to a data forwarding indication from thefirst base station, and allocate a computation resource to the second MEhost in response to a MEC resource allocation request from a second basestation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Aspects of the exemplary disclosure are best understood from thefollowing detailed description when read with the accompanying figures.Various features are not drawn to scale, dimensions of various featuresmay be arbitrarily increased or reduced for clarity of discussion.

FIG. 1 shows a flowchart of a handover method, in accordance with anexample implementation of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 shows a handover message flow, in accordance with an exampleimplementation of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3. shows a transmission procedure between the base station and theMEC entity, in accordance with an example implementation of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 4. shows a transmission procedure between the base station and theMEC entity, in accordance with another example implementation of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 5. shows a flowchart of a handover decision procedure, inaccordance with an example implementation of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of an admission control procedure, inaccordance with an example implementation of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7. shows a resource allocation procedure, in accordance with anexample implementation of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8. shows a data forwarding procedure, in accordance with an exampleimplementation of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 shows a block diagram of wireless communication apparatus, inaccordance with various aspects of the present application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description contains specific information pertaining toexample implementations in the present disclosure. The drawings in thepresent disclosure and their accompanying detailed description aredirected to merely example implementations. However, the presentdisclosure is not limited to merely these example implementations. Othervariations and implementations of the present disclosure will occur tothose skilled in the art. Unless noted otherwise, like or correspondingelements among the figures may be indicated by like or correspondingreference numerals. Moreover, the drawings and illustrations in thepresent disclosure are generally not to scale, and are not intended tocorrespond to actual relative dimensions.

For the purpose of consistency and ease of understanding, like featuresare identified (although, in some examples, not shown) by numerals inthe example figures. However, the features in different implementationsmay be differed in other respects, and thus shall not be narrowlyconfined to what is shown in the figures.

References to “one implementation,” “an implementation,” “exampleimplementation,” “various implementations,” “some implementations,”“implementations of the present application,” etc., may indicate thatthe implementation(s) of the present application so described mayinclude a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but notevery possible implementation of the present application necessarilyincludes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Further,repeated use of the phrase “in one implementation,” or “in an exampleimplementation,” “an implementation,” do not necessarily refer to thesame implementation, although they may. Moreover, any use of phraseslike “implementations” in connection with “the present application” arenever meant to characterize that all implementations of the presentapplication must include the particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic, and should instead be understood to mean “at least someimplementations of the present application” includes the statedparticular feature, structure, or characteristic. The term “coupled” isdefined as connected, whether directly or indirectly through interveningcomponents, and is not necessarily limited to physical connections. Theterm “comprising,” when utilized, means “including, but not necessarilylimited to”; it specifically indicates open-ended inclusion ormembership in the so-described combination, group, series and theequivalent.

Additionally, for the purposes of explanation and non-limitation,specific details, such as functional entities, techniques, protocols,standard, and the like are set forth for providing an understanding ofthe described technology. In other examples, detailed description ofwell-known methods, technologies, system, architectures, and the likeare omitted so as not to obscure the description with unnecessarydetails.

Persons skilled in the art will immediately recognize that any networkfunction(s) or algorithm(s) described in the present disclosure may beimplemented by hardware, software or a combination of software andhardware. Described functions may correspond to modules may be software,hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. The softwareimplementation may comprise computer executable instructions stored oncomputer readable medium such as memory or other type of storagedevices. For example, one or more microprocessors or general purposecomputers with communication processing capability may be programmedwith corresponding executable instructions and carry out the describednetwork function(s) or algorithm(s). The microprocessors or generalpurpose computers may be formed of applications specific integratedcircuitry (ASIC), programmable logic arrays, and/or using one or moredigital signal processor (DSPs). Although some of the exampleimplementations described in this specification are oriented to softwareinstalled and executing on computer hardware, nevertheless, alternativeexample implementations implemented as firmware or as hardware orcombination of hardware and software are well within the scope of thepresent disclosure.

The computer readable medium includes but is not limited to randomaccess memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), erasable programmableread-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-onlymemory (EEPROM), flash memory, compact disc read-only memory (CD ROM),magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage, or any otherequivalent medium capable of storing computer-readable instructions.

A radio communication network architecture (e.g., a long term evolution(LTE) system, a LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) system, or a LTE-Advanced Prosystem) typically includes at least one base station, at least one UE,and one or more optional network elements that provide connectiontowards a network. The UE communicates with the network (e.g., a corenetwork (CN), an evolved packet core (EPC) network, an Evolved UniversalTerrestrial Radio Access network (E-UTRAN), a Next-Generation Core(NGC), or an internet), through a radio access network (RAN) establishedby the base station.

It should be noted that, in the present application, a UE may include,but is not limited to, a mobile station, a mobile terminal or device, auser communication radio terminal. For example, a UE may be a portableradio equipment, which includes, but is not limited to, a mobile phone,a tablet, a wearable device, a sensor, or a personal digital assistant(PDA) with wireless communication capability. The UE is configured toreceive and transmit signals over an air interface to one or more cellsin a radio access network.

A base station may include, but is not limited to, a node B (NB) as inthe UMTS, an evolved node B (eNB) as in the LTE-A, a radio networkcontroller (RNC) as in the UMTS, a base station controller (BSC) as inthe GSM/GERAN, an NG-eNB as in an E-UTRA base station in connection withthe 5GC, a next generation node B (gNB) as in the 5G-AN, and any otherapparatus capable of controlling radio communication and managing radioresources within a cell. The base station may connect to serve the oneor more UEs through a radio interface to the network.

A base station may be configured to provide communication servicesaccording to at least one of the following radio access technologies(RATs): Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), GlobalSystem for Mobile communications (GSM, often referred to as 2G), GSMEDGE radio access Network (GERAN), General Packet Radio Service (GRPS),Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS, often referred to as3G) based on basic wideband-code division multiple access (W-CDMA),high-speed packet access (HSPA), LTE, LTE-A, eLTE (evolved LTE), NewRadio (NR, often referred to as 5G), and/or LTE-A Pro. However, thescope of the present application should not be limited to the abovementioned protocols.

The base station is operable to provide radio coverage to a specificgeographical area using a plurality of cells forming the radio accessnetwork. The base station supports the operations of the cells. Eachcell is operable to provide services to at least one UE within its radiocoverage. More specifically, each cell (often referred to as a servingcell) provides services to serve one or more UEs within its radiocoverage, (e.g., each cell schedules the downlink and optionally uplinkresources to at least one UE within its radio coverage for downlink andoptionally uplink packet transmissions). The base station cancommunicate with one or more UEs in the radio communication systemthrough the plurality of cells. A cell may allocate sidelink (SL)resources for supporting proximity service (ProSe). Each cell may haveoverlapped coverage areas with other cells.

As discussed above, the frame structure for NR is to support flexibleconfigurations for accommodating various next generation (e.g., 5G)communication requirements, such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB),massive machine type communication (mMTC), ultra-reliable communicationand low latency communication (URLLC), while fulfilling highreliability, high data rate and low latency requirements. The orthogonalfrequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) technology as agreed in 3GPP mayserve as a baseline for NR waveform. The scalable OFDM numerology, suchas the adaptive sub-carrier spacing, the channel bandwidth, and theCyclic Prefix (CP), may also be used. Additionally, two coding schemesare considered for NR: (1) low-density parity-check (LDPC) code and (2)Polar Code. The coding scheme adaption may be configured based on thechannel conditions and/or the service applications.

Moreover, it is also considered that in a transmission time interval TXof a single NR frame, a downlink (DL) transmission data, a guard period,and an uplink (UL) transmission data should at least be included, wherethe respective portions of the DL transmission data, the guard period,the UL transmission data should also be configurable, for example, basedon the network dynamics of NR. In addition, sidelink resource may alsobe provided in an NR frame to support ProSe services.

FIG. 1 shows a flowchart of a handover method, in accordance with anexample implementation of the present disclosure. One of ordinary skillin the art may understand that the illustrated order of actions isillustrative only and the order of the actions may change in response tothe present disclosure. Additional actions can be added or fewer actionsmay be utilized, without departing from this disclosure.

In action 102, a first base station may receive MEC information from aMEC entity. In one implementation, the MEC entity may have ahierarchical structure which includes at least one Mobile Edge (ME)controller (e.g., a ME orchestrator or a ME manager) and at least one MEhost. The ME controller may manage the ME host, and oversee/control theoverall operation of the MEC entity. Different ME controllers mayconnect with one another to exchange information and perform acentralized computation (e.g., local balancing). The ME host may serveone or more base stations, and contain a MEC platform and avirtualization infrastructure which provides compute, storage, andnetwork resources for one or more MEC applications.

In one implementation, the MEC information may include a MEC resourceconfiguration, such as a system load or a compute/storage/networkresource status of the ME hosts. The MEC information may further includeinformation about available network slice profiles, such as a networkcharacteristic configuration (e.g., data rate, communication delay andjitter) and an application processing configuration (e.g., slice typeidentifier (ID) for network slices).

In action 104, the first base station may perform a handover decisionbased on the MEC information. For example, the handover decision mayinvolve a consideration of available MEC resource and radio resource(e.g., bandwidth).

In action 106, the first base station may transmit a handover request toa second base station in response to the handover decision. The secondbase station and the first base station may be associated with the sameor different ME hosts. If the second base station accepts the handoverrequest from the first base station, a communication connection (e.g., aRadio Resource Control (RRC) connection) may then be switched from thefirst base station to the second base station. In such case, the firstbase station is a source base station, and the second base station is atarget base station during the handover.

FIG. 2 shows a handover message flow, in accordance with an exampleimplementation of the present disclosure. In action 202, the UE 22transmits a measurement report to the first base station BS1. Forexample, when a certain event (e.g., the UE 22 detects that the signalstrength to the first base station BS1 falls below a threshold) occurs,the UE 22 may be trigged to send the measurement report to the firstbase station BS1. In another example, the UE 22 may perform measurementsas configured by the serving base station (e.g., the first base stationBS1), and send the measurement report in one or more preconfigured timeslots.

In action 204, the first base station BS1 may collect MEC informationfrom the MEC entity 24. The MEC information may indicate, for example,the capability and/or status of the ME host associated with the neighborcells (e.g., the second base station BS2).

In action 206, the first base station BS1 may make a handover decisionbased on the measurement report and the MEC information. For example,the first base station BS1 may select the second base station BS2 as atarget base station for the handover based on the MEC information basedon a Long Term Evolution (LTE) handover decision principle.

In one implementation, if a UE-requested service has to be processedwith MEC (e.g., a MEC-only service or an edge-cloud hybrid computingservice), sufficient resources on the target base station (e.g., thesecond base station BS2) may be guaranteed to support the service duringthe handover decision procedure. On the other hand, if the requestedservice is not necessary to be processed with MEC, while there issufficient MEC resources on the target side, the user may have thechoice of whether to request the MEC resource. Details of the handoverdecision procedure will be discussed with reference to at least FIG. 5.

In action 208, the first base station B S1 may transmit a handoverrequest to the second base station BS2. In the present implementation,the handover request may include a MEC requirement which carriesinformation about the required resource of MEC. For example, the MECrequirement may include at least one of (i) an amount of MEC resourcesrequired by the user (e.g., using the UE 22) and (ii) a network slicetype. In one implementation, the MEC requirement may further indicatewhether the MEC resource is required or not. In one implementation, theMEC requirement may indicate a roughly amount (e.g., high/medium/small)of the required resources through a category or a flavor. In oneimplementation, the MEC requirement may explicitly indicate the amountof the required resources.

In another implementation, the first base station BS1 may transmit thehandover request to a Mobility Management Entity (MME), an Access andMobility Management Function (AMF) node or a New Generation Node (NGC).For example, in an NR system, the handover request to the AMF node maycarry the result of decision about whether to request for the MECresource.

In action 210, the second base station BS2 may perform an admissioncontrol to determine whether to accept the handover request. Details ofthe admission control procedure will be discussed with reference to atleast FIG. 6.

In action 212, the second base station BS2 may transmit a handoverresponse to the first base station BS1 in response to the MECrequirement. For example, the second base station BS2 may transmit ahandover response with an ACK to the first base station BS1 if thesecond base station BS2 is able to meet the MEC requirement. Otherwise,the second base station BS2 may transmit a handover response with a NACK(non-acknowledgement) message to the first base station BS1.

In action 214, the first base station BS1 may transmit an RRC connectionreconfiguration message to the UE 22.

In action 216, the second base station BS2 may communicate with the MECentity 24 to perform a resource allocation procedure. Details of theresource allocation procedure will be discussed with reference to atleast FIG. 7.

In action 218, the MEC entity 24 may communicate with the first basestation BS1 and the second base station BS2, and initiate a dataforwarding procedure that migrates user data from a ME host (e.g., asource ME host associated with the first base station BS1) to another MEhost (e.g., a target ME host associated with the second base stationBS2). Details of the data forwarding procedure will be discussed withreference to at least FIG. 8.

In action 220, the UE 22 may send an RRC connection reconfigurationcomplete message to the second base station BS2, so that the RRCconnection is switched to the second base station BS2.

FIG. 3. shows a transmission procedure between the base station BS andthe MEC entity 32, in accordance with an example implementation of thepresent disclosure. The base station BS may substantially correspond tothe first base station BS1 or the second base station BS2 as shown anddescribed with reference to FIG. 2. The MEC entity 32 may correspond tothe MEC entity 24 shown in FIG. 2.

In the present implementation, the MEC entity 32 may transmit the MECinformation to the base station BS periodically, as shown in actions302, 304 and 306. The way the base station BS transmitting the MECinformation may, for instance, be broadcast, multicast or unicast. Thecontent of each MEC information may be the same or different.

FIG. 4. shows a transmission procedure between the base station BS' andthe MEC entity 42, in accordance with another example implementation ofthe present disclosure. The base station BS' may substantiallycorrespond to the first base station BS1 or the second base station BS2as shown and described with reference to FIG. 2. The MEC entity 42 maycorrespond to the MEC entity 24 shown in FIG. 2.

In the present implementation, the base station BS' may transmit a MECinformation request to the MEC entity 42 to request the MEC information.As shown in FIG. 4, in action 402, the base station BS' may send a MECinformation request to the MEC entity 42. For example, when the basestation BS' receives a measurement report which meets a condition thatmay trigger the handover decision, the base station BS' may look up itsdata base for the MEC information of the ME hosts associated with theneighbor cells. If the MEC information has expired or does not exist,the base station BS' may then send the MEC information request to theMEC entity 42 to request the latest MEC information. In action 404, theMEC entity 42 may reply the base station BS' with the MEC information inresponse to the MEC information request.

FIG. 5. shows a flowchart of a handover decision procedure, inaccordance with an example implementation of the present disclosure. Forthe convenience of illustration, the handover decision procedure isillustrated in reference with FIG. 2.

In one implementation, the handover decision procedure may be triggeredby the measurement report from the user (e.g., using the UE 22). Forexample, the first base station BS1 may initiate the handover decisionprocedure if the measurement report received from the UE 22 meets atriggering condition, such as the signal quality to the serving cellfalling below a threshold.

The first base station BS1 may select the target base station for thehandover in the handover decision procedure. For example, in the presentimplementation, the first base station BS1 may select the second basestation BS2 as the target base station for the handover based on the MECinformation.

As shown in FIG. 5, in action 502, the first base station BS1 maydetermine whether the UE 22 requires a MEC-only service (or anedge-cloud hybrid service) or not. If yes, in action 504, the first basestation B S1 may filter out candidate target base stations that cannotmeet the MEC-capability-related criteria. For example, the first basestation BS1 may remove a candidate target base station that runs out ofits MEC resources from a list of candidate base stations. On thecontrary, if the determination in action 502 is no, the procedure mayproceed to action 508.

In one implementation, a candidate target base station may releaseessential resources (e.g., by directing other users' service to thecloud) to support the MEC requirement, even if the candidate target basestation originally does not have sufficient MEC resources to support therequired MEC-only service. In such case, the candidate target basestation may not be filtered out from the list.

In action 506, the first base station BS1 may determine whether allcandidate target base stations are filtered out. If no, in action 508,the first base station BS1 may select the target base station (e.g., thesecond base station BS2) from the candidate target base stations basedon the signal quality or other LTE handover decision principles. Forexample, the first base station BS1 may select the candidate target basestation with the best Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) tothe UE 22 as the target base station. If the outcome of determinationfrom action 506 is yes (e.g., all candidate target base stations arefiltered out), then the handover fails in action 510.

In brief, in the present implementation, the first base station BS1 mayperform a two-stage filtering process to select the target base stationfrom the candidate target base stations. One stage is performed based onthe MEC-capability-related criteria. The other stage is performed basedon the signal quality (or other LTE handover decision principles). Oneof ordinary skill in the art may understand that the order of the twostages can change in response to the present disclosure. For example, inone implementation, the first base station BS1 may first filter outcandidate target base stations with poor signal quality, and then selectthe target base station from the remaining candidate target basestations based on the MEC-capability-related criteria.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of an admission control procedure during ahandover, in accordance with an example implementation of the presentdisclosure. For the convenience of illustration, the admission controlprocedure is illustrated in reference with FIG. 2.

During the admission control procedure, the second base station BS2 maycheck its resource state and the user's requirement to determine whetherto accept the handover request.

As shown in FIG. 6, in action 602, the second base station BS2 may checkwhether the radio resource is sufficient to support the user (e.g., theUE 22). If yes, the procedure proceeds to action 604. If no, thehandover fails in action 606.

In action 604, the second base station BS2 may determine whether theuser requires the MEC resource or not, based on the MEC requirement inthe handover request. If yes, the procedure may continue to action 610,in which the MEC resource allocation procedure is initiated. If no, thesecond base station BS2 may accept the handover request, and direct theuser's service to the cloud, as shown in action 608.

FIG. 7 shows a resource allocation procedure during a handover, inaccordance with an example implementation of the present disclosure. Forthe convenience of illustration, the resource allocation procedure isillustrated in reference with FIG. 2.

In the present implementation, the MEC entity 72 may substantiallycorrespond to the MEC entity 24, as shown and described in referencewith FIG. 2. The second base station BS2 may be selected as the targetbase station for the handover.

The MEC entity 72 may include a ME controller 74 and a ME host 76. TheME controller 74 may be a ME orchestrator or a ME manager, configured toperform a system-level or host-level management. The ME host 76 may runone or more MEC applications on a MEC platform to provide the MECservice. In the present implementation, the ME host 76 is associatedwith the second base station BS2 and provides MEC servicescorrespondingly.

During the resource allocation procedure, MEC entity 72 may communicatewith the second base station BS2 and allocate the MEC resource to the MEhost 76 associated with the second base station BS2. In oneimplementation, the resource allocation procedure may launch a VirtualMachine (VM) in OpenStack.

As shown in FIG. 7, in action 702, the second base station BS2 maytransmit a MEC resource allocation request to the ME controller 74. Inaction 704, the ME controller 74 may allocate a computation resource tothe ME host 76 in response to the MEC resource allocation request.

In one implementation, the MEC resource allocation request may indicatethe required MEC computational resource, storage, etc. For example, theMEC resource allocation request may include at least one of a UE ID, anetwork slice type and a service ID, where the service ID may be anapplication ID, an IP address or a port number.

In one implementation, the MEC entity 72 may use the service ID todetermine whether the same service has been running on the target MEhost (e.g., the ME host 76). For example, if a first user is running avideo streaming application when the handover occurs and a second useris also running the same video on the target ME host, the ME controller74 just needs to register the first user to the target ME host, so thatthe first user may share the MEC resource on the target ME host. On theother hand, if a user is running a video streaming application when thehandover occurs while there are no other users running the same video onthe target ME host, the ME controller 74 may fetch the resource of thevideo from a remote server by an application ID provided by the user.

In another implementation, the MEC entity 72 may use the service ID todetermine where to fetch the service, if the service is not on thetarget ME host.

In action 706, the MEC entity 72 may transmit a MEC resource allocationcomplete message to the second base station BS2. In one implementation,the MEC resource allocation complete message may contain information forthe upcoming user (e.g., the UE 22) to access the allocated resources(e.g., the IP address of a virtual resource (e.g., a VM), and/or theport number). In another implementation, the MEC resource allocationcomplete message may be an indication of whether the MEC resourceallocation request is accepted.

FIG. 8. shows a data forwarding procedure during a handover, inaccordance with an example implementation of the present disclosure. Forthe convenience of illustration, the data forwarding procedure isillustrated in reference with FIG. 2.

In the present implementation, the MEC entity 82 may substantiallycorrespond to the MEC entity 24, as shown and described in referencewith FIG. 2. The first base station BS1 and the second base station BS2may be the source base station and the target base station for thehandover, respectively.

The MEC entity 82 may include a ME controller 84, a first ME host 86 anda second ME host 88. During the data forwarding procedure, the MECentity 82 may communicate with the first base station BS1 and the secondbase station BS2, and forward the user data from the source ME host(e.g., the first ME host 86) associated with the first base station BS1to the target ME host (e.g., the second ME host 88) associated with thesecond base station BS2.

As shown in FIG. 8, in action 802, the first base station BS1 maytransmit a data forwarding indication to the MEC entity 82. The dataforwarding indication may include, for example, at least one of a UE ID,a user profile and a ME host ID (e.g., the ID of the second ME host 88).

In action 804, the ME controller 84 may enable a migration of user datafrom the first ME host 86 to the second ME host 88 in response to thedata forwarding indication. For example, if a user is running a videostreaming application when the handover occurs, the user's currentplaying time and coding rate may be forwarded to the target ME host(e.g., the second ME host 88) as a user profile. In action 806, the MEcontroller 84 may send a data forwarding complete message to the firstbase station BS1. In one implementation, the data forwarding indicationand the data forwarding complete message may be Layer-Three (L3)messages, and the user data may be migrated between the ME hosts in theform of MEC commands.

FIG. 9 shows a block diagram of wireless communication apparatus, inaccordance with various aspects of the present application. The wirelesscommunication apparatus may be realized as a base station, a UE, or aMEC entity as described herein.

As shown in FIG. 9, the wireless communication apparatus 900 may includea transceiver 906, a processor 908, a memory 902, one or morepresentation components 904, and at least one antenna 910. The wirelesscommunication apparatus 900 may also include an RF spectrum band module,a base station communications module, a network communications module,and a system communications management module, input/output (I/O) ports,I/O components, and power supply (not explicitly shown in FIG. 9). Eachof these components may be in communication with each other, directly orindirectly, over one or more buses 924.

The transceiver 906 having a transmitter 916 and a receiver 918 may beconfigured to transmit and/or receive time and/or frequency resourcepartitioning information. In some implementations, the transceiver 906may be configured to transmit in different types of subframes and slotsincluding, but not limited to, usable, non-usable and flexibly usablesubframes and slot formats. The transceiver 906 may be configured toreceive data and control channels.

The wireless communication apparatus 900 may include a variety ofcomputer-readable media. Computer storage media includes RAM, ROM,EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digitalversatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes,magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices.Computer storage media does not comprise a propagated data signal.Communication media typically embodies computer-readable instructions,data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated datasignal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includesany information delivery media.

The memory 902 may include computer-storage media in the form ofvolatile and/or non-volatile memory. The memory 902 may be removable,non-removable, or a combination thereof. Example memory includessolid-state memory, hard drives, optical-disc drives, and etc. Asillustrated in FIG. 9, the memory 902 may store data 912 andcomputer-readable, computer-executable instructions 914 (e.g., softwarecodes) that are configured to, when executed, cause the processor 908 toperform various functions described herein. Alternatively, theinstructions 914 may not be directly executable by the processor 908 butbe configured to cause the wireless communication apparatus 900 (e.g.,when compiled and executed) to perform various functions describedherein.

The processor 908 may include an intelligent hardware device, e.g., acentral processing unit (CPU), a microcontroller, an ASIC, etc. Theprocessor 908 may include memory. The processor 908 may process data 920and instructions 922 received from the memory 902, and informationthrough the transceiver 906, the base band communications module, and/orthe network communications module. The processor 908 may also processinformation to be sent to the transceiver 906 for transmission throughthe antenna 910.

One or more presentation components 904 presents data indications to aperson or other device. Example one or more presentation components 904include a display device, speaker, printing component, vibratingcomponent, etc.

From the above description it is manifest that various techniques can beused for implementing the concepts described in the present applicationwithout departing from the scope of those concepts. Moreover, while theconcepts have been described with specific reference to certainimplementations, a person of ordinary skill in the art would recognizethat changes can be made in form and detail without departing from thescope of those concepts. As such, the described implementations are tobe considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive. Itshould also be understood that the present application is not limited tothe particular implementations described above, but many rearrangements,modifications, and substitutions are possible without departing from thescope of the present disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, by a first basestation, Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) information from a MEC entity;performing, by the first base station, a handover decision based on theMEC information; and transmitting, by the first base station, a handoverrequest to a second base station in response to the handover decision.2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, bythe first base station, a MEC information request to the MEC entity torequest the MEC information.
 3. The method according to claim 1, furthercomprising: receiving, by the first base station, the MEC informationfrom the MEC entity periodically.
 4. The method according to claim 1,wherein the performing the handover decision further comprises:selecting, by the first base station, the second base station inresponse to the MEC information.
 5. The method according to claim 1,wherein the handover request comprises a MEC requirement.
 6. The methodaccording to claim 5, wherein the MEC requirement comprises a networkslice type.
 7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:transmitting, by the first base station, a data forwarding indication tothe MEC entity.
 8. A method comprising: receiving, by a second basestation, a handover request from a first base station, wherein thehandover request includes a Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) requirement; andtransmitting, by the second base station, a handover response to thefirst base station in response to the MEC requirement.
 9. The methodaccording to claim 8, further comprising: determining, by the secondbase station, whether a MEC resource is required according to the MECrequirement; and transmitting, by the second base station, a MECresource allocation request to a MEC entity when the MEC resource isrequired.
 10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the MEC resourceallocation request comprising at least one of a UE identifier (ID), anetwork slice type and a service ID.
 11. The method according to claim9, further comprising: receiving, by the second base station, a MECresource allocation complete message from the MEC entity.
 12. A methodcomprising: providing, by a Mobile Edge (ME) controller, MEC informationto a first base station; enabling, by the ME controller, a migration ofuser data from a first ME host to a second ME host in response to a dataforwarding indication from the first base station; and allocating, bythe ME controller, a computation resource to the second ME host inresponse to a MEC resource allocation request from a second basestation.
 13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the dataforwarding indication comprises at least one of a UE identifier (ID), auser profile and a ME host ID.
 14. A base station comprising: one ormore non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executableinstructions embodied thereon; and at least one processor coupled to theone or more non-transitory computer-readable media, and configured toexecute the computer-executable instructions to: receive Mobile EdgeComputing (MEC) information from a MEC entity; perform a handoverdecision in response to the MEC information; and transmit a handoverrequest to another base station in response to the handover decision.15. The base station according to claim 14, wherein the at least oneprocessor is further configured to execute the computer-executableinstructions to: transmit a MEC information request to the MEC entity torequest the MEC information.
 16. The base station according to claim 14,wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute thecomputer-executable instructions to: receive the MEC information fromthe MEC entity periodically.
 17. The base station according to claim 14,wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute thecomputer-executable instructions to: select the another base station inresponse to the MEC information.
 18. The base station according to claim14, wherein the handover request comprises a MEC requirement.
 19. Thebase station according to claim 18, wherein the MEC requirementcomprises a network slice type.
 20. The base station according to claim14, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to executethe computer-executable instructions to: transmit a data forwardingindication to the MEC entity.
 21. A base station comprising: one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executableinstructions embodied thereon; and at least one processor coupled to theone or more non-transitory computer-readable media, and configured toexecute the computer-executable instructions to: receive a handoverrequest from another base station, wherein the handover request includesa Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) requirement; and transmit a handoverresponse to the another base station in response to the MEC requirement.22. The base station according to claim 21, wherein the at least oneprocessor is further configured to execute the computer-executableinstructions to: determine whether a MEC resource is required accordingto the MEC requirement; and transmit a MEC resource allocation requestto a MEC entity when the MEC resource is required.
 23. The base stationaccording to claim 22, wherein the MEC resource allocation requestcomprising at least one of a UE identifier (ID), a network slice typeand a service ID.
 24. The base station according to claim 22, whereinthe at least one processor is further configured to execute thecomputer-executable instructions to: receive a MEC resource allocationcomplete message from the MEC entity.
 25. A Mobile Edge Computing (MEC)entity comprising: a first Mobile Edge (ME) host; a second ME host; anda ME controller managing the first ME host and the second ME host,configured to provide MEC information to a first base station, enable amigration of user data from the first ME host to the second ME host inresponse to a data forwarding indication from the first base station,and allocate a computation resource to the second ME host in response toa MEC resource allocation request from a second base station.
 26. TheMEC entity according to claim 25, wherein the data forwarding indicationcomprises at least one of a UE identifier (ID), a user profile and a MEhost ID.